Carver Owner Club News
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Carver Owners Club - Newsletter 2023 (Summer)
Carry On Carver'ing
"Possibly the best Car Club in the world" - Multiple Carver Owner from LuxembourgSorry been a little busy on other things to getting a round to doing a newsletter but finally it is here.
It includes an article from a club member, some news from the year so far and an official event for next year (fingers crossed).Carvers not so much fun!
Carvers aren’t as much fun as we all make out!
Because they do everything you want of them with such consummate ease!
Most of the fun is going round bends quickly, right?
And back in my motorcycling career, in the 60's and 70's, bikes like my BSA 650, and Nortons, were known for better handling than the quicker, lighter Triumphs.
So if you wanted good cornering, you got a BSA or a Norton.
And many people put Triumph engines in BSA or Norton chassis.So at some point I had this thought -
"if cornering fun comes from going round bends as close to yours and the machine's limits as you dare , you'll get your fun more easily with an evil-handling machine than with a good one!"
Well, Carvers just take you round as fast and smooth as you want and say
‘Will that do you? You want more?
Just put a bit more pressure on the steering wheel and I’ll bank further and do it.Hartside Pass, North Pennines, Hexham, United Kingdom - 57Km
Arguably the best road in the UK.
Good surface, fairly quiet road. Mixture of fast twistys and tight hairpins. Good scenery. A great link route between the Lake District and Northumberland.On one of the Welsh Rallies, I was behind another owner along the A5 from Pentrefoelas into Betwys-y-Coed (Bettoos-ee-Coyt).
It’s the archetypal twisty, formed by following the valley of the River Conway.
We were going quite smartly. It’s been my practice as a motorcyclist since the 1960’s to not just swoop into a bend, especially one I can’t see through, but to always dab the brakes, just to take the edge off my entry speed and my brain's anxiety level. Maybe cog down one on the gearbox.
But I never saw a brake light on the Carver in front. He just seemed to swing into every bend at whatever speed he was doing.
When we stopped in Betsy (ok, English pronunciation) I said to him 'Are your brake lights working?’ ‘I think so’ he said. ‘Why?’ ‘Well I never saw them go on, going into all those bends’. He said ‘Oh, I don’t bother, I know it will get round!’ He’s pretty much right.
A Carver will get round!Thanks Eddie (VIN031) for the informative article.
If anyone else would like to share their Carver'ing experiences / ownership please let me know.#sportingbears #dreamrides
Our Carver #VIN034 aka #Clara has been out doing charity #DreamRides for the @SportingBears and we are signed up for CarFest 2023 - The Big One 25th - 27th August.Thirlestane Castle
Borders Vintage Automobile Club (BVAC)
18th June 2023#Clara the #CarverOne was very popular we did not even get time for a lunch break or a look around the show.Events
Sorry no official owners club event this year, we were going to try to organise and event in Spain but left it too late to organise as the hotel we have used twice before seems to have fallen victim to Covid and are no longer open.2024
So we are getting organised earlier for 2024, and the planing has started, back to Spain, most likely in May.Unofficial event
We did have a small (which grew a little) event in Alsace (not the Black Forest as that is the other side of the Rhine) and called in to see Carver Earth (link) (EV) who offer to host an event last year (2022) but did not get around to arranging.The Carver One (ICE) and the Carver Earth (EV) and very different vehicle designed for different purposes.
Carver One is more like a sports car
Carver Earth is a commuter vehicle
Chris van den Brink (co-inventor) gave us a great presentation, and a big thanks to all at Carver Earth for the hospitality.
Whilst there Freddi form Carver in Elsass signed up to be a dealer for Carver Earth. -
Carver Owners Club - Newsletter 2022 (December)
Update
Well that's another year nearly over so not much Carver'ing over the next few months in the northern hemisphere, but probably the best time to use a Carver in the middle east, southern hemisphere etc
Just a short newsletter this time as no one has had time to submit any news about their Carvers.Link to YouTube Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gJq8leHdIo
Link to Collecting Cars - https://collectingcars.com/Alsace 2022 - what an event
Well what an event!- 17 Carvers on the road (and one spare in the recovery vehicle if needed.)
- Owners from UK, India, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands.
- The roads were fantastic
- The weather was fantastic
- The whole thing was super fantastic a big thanks to Freddi and this team
There were event, carpets (not the flying magic version though), caps and T-ShirtsOne owner has some interesting modificationsSporting Bears
Our Carver #VIN034 aka has been out doing charity Dream Rides for the Sporting Bears and we have signed up for some events in 2023.Carfest (North)
Petrol Headonism
Petrol Headonism (website) in September in the UK with lovely sunny weather!
We also met Tim Burton (not the film maker), known professionally as Shmee150 or Shmee, who is a British car vlogger and YouTuber - link to his YouTube channel
Oops my head is blocking out some of the Sporting Bears / Dream Rides free advertisingUK Sunday lunch meetup
Back on the road - Finally
We have had a member in the club for a number of years who's Carver has not been in working condition and he kept saying yes I need to get it fix.
Last year on our trip to meet members around the UK we met this member and told them to get their Carver to CCPS to get fixed.
And great news it is now fixed and back on the road -
Carver Owners Club - Newsletter 2021 (September)
The president and first lady's UK tour ;-))
The purpose: -
• Have a break as we have not been on holiday abroad for ages.
• Meet Carver owners (new and existing) in the UK (maybe Europe next year and the rest of the world in 2023).
• To introduce UK Carver Owners to each other based on locations.The facts / stats: -
• Covered 1600 Miles / 2575 Kilometres.
• Over 11 days.
• Met 19 (out of a planned 21) owners with 19.5 Carvers.
• 11 were owners we have not met before and 8 that we have met before.
• Which works out at 82 Miles / 130 Kilometres per Carver owner (MPCO) (similar to miles per Dave Gorman (MPDG)) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_Dave_Gorman%3F.WARNING - quite a long read as we visited so many Carvers, people and locations over the eleven days.Day One
Finished work just after lunch and set off towards the first owner (Alan) who lives in the North of The Lake District, stayed at the Gilpin Bridge Inn. - https://www.robinsonsbrewery.com/pubs/gilpin-bridge-inn-levens/ where #Clara our #CarverOne got spotted. - https://www.facebook.com/groups/carsyoudontseeanymore/Day Two
Drove to meet the owners of VIN155 (Alan) and had a good but quick catchup chat as we were on a tight schedule to get to Barton Airport - https://www.cityairportandheliport.com/ (which we have been to for car meets before and when I have more time is probably where I might take up my Gyro lessons again) to meet VIN031 & VIN007 (maybe that should have been the VIN I should have had as my initials are JB just like James Bond).
We used the motorway to get to Barton just in time as the schedule was 15:30 and we arrived at 15:29 and the two other owners (Eddie and Trevor) had already done introductions to each other.
It was nice to see the owner of VIN031 again and meet the owner of VIN007 for the first time.
The owner of VIN031 kindly offered to lead a route from Barton to our second over night stay at the Legh Arms in Prestbury https://legharmsprestbury.pub/ where a couple of non-carver friends dropped in for a drink with us.
We have made the two Manchester Carvers owners members of the Yorkshire Carver Plus Whatsapp group so they can come along and join us on trips out.Day Three
We arranged to meet the owners of VINs 173 & 041 (Barry and Chris) at Tissington in Derbyshire which is a lovely location (http://tissingtonhall.co.uk/).
Connie the Tiger Carver got papped (photo taken and put online) https://peakwalking.blogspot.com/2021/08/tissington-and-ashbourne.html / Peak District Photography https://www.facebook.com/groups/195781333958521/.
We then drove on some nice roads to Kedleston Hall (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kedleston-hall) where we had a quick lunch break and chatted about how it is great to be out and watching other Carvers and how they look from other drivers' points of view.
On the way out we thought we would stop and take a photo in front of the Hall, but we got into trouble from the National Trust jobs worths who wanted to charge us £75 per hour license fee to take photos.
So we quickly left and headed to meet VIN083 (Richard) which has lovely green interior, a lovely guard dog called Ellie but the Carver needs a trip to Club Carver Parts and Service (CCPS) www.ccps.org.uk as it has not been used for a while.
Hopefully the owners of VINs 041, 083 and 173 can create a local chapter of the owners club and go on drives out together.Day Three continued + Day Four and Start of Day Five
After we had met the owners of VINs 041, 083 and 173, we drove to Telford to spend a couple of nights with friends.
En route we got stuck in our first traffic jam, which seemed to be caused by having to pay the Toll on the M6 Toll road.
On the Saturday it was supposed to be a non-Carver driving day but some of our friends' family called around and wanted rides in #Clara so I obliged.
We then had a great day visiting pubs and a pie shop in Ironbridge (https://www.ironbridge.org.uk/) which was the location of one of the owners clubs first weekend events back in 2009.
On the Sunday morning we set off to meet VIN055.Day Five continued
We eventually found VIN055 (Jane) after a couple of phone calls as not the easiest of locations to find (or maybe it was my bad navigating or maybe even the fault of the bug hitch hiker we picked up).
We have been trying to meet up with Jane for a few years now but our diaries never seemed to align.
However thanks to Covid and travel restrictions Jane was not away on one of her other European car trips.
Like our VIN034, VIN055 (one of the few without the rear spoiler) has also been with one owner from new, but has not been used as much maybe due to the number of cars it has to compete with https://www.jhwclassics.com/ .
Maybe next year we will arrange a club event to visit her car & bike collection.
Again the tight schedule meant we needed to be on the road to go and meet the new owner of silver VIN131 (Peter)
We arrived a little early so had a walk around as the sun had managed to break through the clouds.
Had a great chat with Peter and Nicola whilst having a cup of tea on the lawn of Corse Lawn House https://www.corselawn.com/ covering Somerset Tea, Carvers, Flying, New Zealand and much more.Day Five continued again (feeling like a very long day)
We had booked an overnight stay at Sturdys Castle - https://www.sturdyscastleoxford.com/ (which was not an actual castle to my disappointment) as we had planned to call at Diddly Squat Farm Shop https://diddlysquatfarmshop.com/ as featured in Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime staring Jeremy Clarkson who, of course, drove the Carver on both BBC Top Gear and his 2003 Shootout Video (links can be found to the videos at https://www.cvr-oc.info/Carver-Videos/).
The hotel was very accommodating as we arrived at 18:04 and they had stopped serving food at 18:00 but they got the chef to turn the ovens back on and we had a lovely Sunday roast.Day Six (all change)
Had to change plans due to: -- the fact the owner we planned to meet on the Tuesday now had to go into work and could only meet on the Monday.
- also another owner we were going to meet near Poole (albeit without his Carver, as it is still in France at Carver in Elsass) had to go back to the Midlands.
- One of the two owners that we planned to meet between Bath and Bristol was unable to drive due to sight issues (hope you are able to get back driving VIN108 soon Steven).
We have put VIN072 and VIN131 in touch with each other so that they can do Carver runs out together and also discuss Somerset Tea.
We then drove down to Poole to meet with Carver VIN077 (Lesley). Can you guess what colour it was? It also has CVR in the registation like our own J8 CVR.
We had a slight delay due to some road works but generally we have done well to say it was still the UK's school holidays.
Lesley has really got to grips with driving the Carver and we took a run out to Sandbanks (expensive houses) and then to a pub where I showed Lesley how to use the maintenance handle to tip the Carver.
In Poole we stayed at the Ox Hotel, Bar and Grill - http://www.oxhotel.co.uk/ and I was looking forward to a nice Thai meal but the restaurant was closed as there was a shortage of staff, especially chefs. So we managed to find a nice African restaurant near by which we can recommend, Zim Braai in Poole https://www.zim-braai.co.uk/.Day Seven
So next it was on to Guildford and the sounding areas where we hoped we would get three additional Carvers out for a ride with us, but due to work commitments we met VIN040 on the Tuesday and the other VINs on the Wednesday.
Joel the owner of VIN040 is another owner who has had his Carver from new and also like VIN055 does not have the rear spoiler.
Joel made us a very nice light lunch (which is what we needed after all the cooked breakfasts) and we had a great catch up chat as we have not see him for a few years.
We discussed a lot about alternatives to Internal Combustion for example the Hydrogen system being developed by RiverSimple - https://www.riversimple.com/ which he knows a lot about.
In the afternoon we found our way to our hotel - The Drummond at Albury - https://thedrummond.co.uk/ and since we were staying there for two nights, we could properly unpack our two small bags!Day Eight
Howard the owner of VIN078 suggested we meet at Newlands Corner - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newlands_Corner as it is easy to find and often used for car and bike meets.
It was also only about 5 minutes away from our hotel so we got there early to walk off some of our cooked breakfast.
Howard was only able to meet up because he had boat issues and he had been due to be sailing that day.
Martin turned up first in VIN198.
We then set off for a drive around the countryside and when we had a stop both drivers mentioned it was the first time they had seen and driven with other Carvers and it was great fun.
We then set off to find a pub but on the way Howard missed a turning and somehow we managed to end up at Mole Valley Specialist Cars - https://www.mole-valley.co.uk/ which was the first UK dealer for van den Brink Carvers. This is where Howard bought his Carver from and where Martin has bought TVRs from. We had a very good and interesting chat with the owner who knows lots of people in the motor industry and has Christmas cards with "Three Wiesmann" Cars on them - https://wiesmann.com/ which made us laugh.
After lunch Howard had to leave us so we and Martin carried on our travels to go and meet VIN033 (just one less than our own VIN034).
I have been trying to encourage the owner of VIN033 (Keith, who has had the Carver from new) to get his Carver sent to CCPS and get it back on the road as it has not been out in a few years as you can see from the photo. It is actually black and not another grey Carver.
Hopefully Joel, Howard, Martin, Keith and others around Guildford who we were not able to meet will keep in touch and organise runs out together.
Joel and Keith actually only live about five minutes from each other and have both worked in databases so should definitely meet up.
In the evening an ex-customer of mine came over to the hotel and we drank too much wine whilst catching up.Day Nine
Next stop Ace Cafe London - https://london.acecafe.com/ a well known location for bikes (mainly on weekends and evenings so was very quiet when we called in) on the way to see VIN019 (Frank) in North London.
Frank has got a very steep drive so we left Clara in gear handbrake on as hard as I could and I noticed two bricks to the side of the drive so I put them under the rear wheels too.
it was the first time we had met Frank and we had a great chat and he thanked me for all the help I had provided when he was buying VIN019 from the former owner Ahmed.
He has invited us and some of the other Yorkshire Carver owners to his home for a BBQ but it is quite a long drive (200+ miles / 321 Kilometres) so we would have to sleep over and he said there is plenty of floor space ;-))
Since we had no more Carver owners to see in the South we started heading North back home and stopped at Saracen’s Head Hotel in Towcester (near Silverstone) - https://www.greenekinginns.co.uk/hotels/saracens-head-hotel/ where there were twice as many McLarens in the car park than there were Carver Ones.Day Ten
Nice easy drive from Towcester and did not meet / see any other Carvers or owners.Day Eleven
Whilst we were away we added VIN061 (Bill) to the Yorkshire Plus Whatsapp group and suggested to the group that we met on the Saturday up near Stokesley - https://www.yorkshire.com/places/north-yorkshire/north-east-yorkshire/stokesley as it was not too far from Bradford and Newcastle.
There was the potential to have nine Carvers there but ...... neither Trevor or Eddie could make it from Manchester, Ehab was on holiday, Johnny had to go to a christening and then Monty and Jenn realised that their MOTs had expired, so that just left the three of us.
VIN008 (Simon) arrived first followed by us in VIN034 and then Bill arrived in VIN061.Day Eleven continued
Unfortunately Bill was unable to come for a drive with us so we decided to take a drive to go and see Monty and Jenn.
This gave me an opportunity to try out my Insta360 R One Camera.
I have not had time yet to process the recording but will post when I have done it.
It will be similar to videos that Freddi from Carver in Elsass has done - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhNktp_MJik and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFuYLvtF4Ew
We caught up with Monty and Jenn and their 2.5 Carvers, the two white ones VIN10046 & VIN10047 along with the part built purple one from Venture Vehicles / Persu in the USA - http://www.flytheroad.com/ who were going to license the Carver DVC technology.THE END If you have read it all an enjoyed it please let us know, if we have missed anyone or any details sorry it was a very busy 11 days.Events
Not sure what, if any, events will happen in 2022, but we have already had requests to go back to Spain and the Blackforest.
If you have any suggestion or know of any events carver should attend please let Events knowCVR-OC Links
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Carver Owners Club - Newsletter 2021 (June)
Hope you are all keeping safe and well and Carver'ing when you can?
We have had a few owners sell their Carvers and leave the club.
One even traded his Carver for a Porsche (video done by the garage is good (a little long though)), but why would anyone want a Porsche instead of a Carver?
But on the other hand we now have some new members - welcomeOwners around the world
I am trying to do a couple of things:
• Maintain a register of Carvers, their locations and their owners'
• Put those owners that are interested in meeting up in touch with other owners around then.
Therefore can you please let the owners club know the following information:
• Your VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)
• Your nearest town / city
• If you are interested in meeting other Carver owners
• Contact information to share if you do want to meet up
Please send information hereThe history of the Carver Owners Club (worldwide)
When we ordered our Carver One (#CarverOne) back in 2006 I asked if there was going to be an owners club or any sort of events. Paul & Bill from the UK dealer said there would be and details would follow.
After a bit of a delay we got our Carver (#Clara) in 2007 and I asked both the UK dealer and Carver Europe if there was going to be an owners club. This time the response was that there might be.
So I actually started a UK Carver Owners Club back in late 2007 / early 2008 and then later in 2008, the club went global and became the World Wide Carver Owners Club (#CVROC)
I even got some T-Shirts printed (see above) with Pilot and Co-Pilot on them.Above are the founding members of the Carver Owners Club.We got to learn about each other when Carver Europe were visiting doing some recall work as the Dealers did not want to share details with Carver Europe or between the owners.
Blue Carver (VIN008) - Simon, Red Carver (VIN034) - Us & Gold Carver (VIN43) - Monty.
The first event, where these photos (above) were taken, was held near York, North Yorkshire, UK and was organised by Monty along with some Feet Forward motor cycle people.
As you can see from the graph below the number of members and the number of Carvers they own has increased over the years.Over the years the Carver Owners Club has arranged some events for it's members:
• First major meeting around Derbyshire - where we got into trouble taking photos outside JCB worldwide HQ.
• Meeting in Ironbridge
• A couple of trips to Spain
• Lincolnshire
• Lots of trips to Wales
• One to the Black Forest (2nd one cancelled due to Covid-19 in 2020)
• and lots more.........We have also travelled to a few distant locations (UAE & New Zealand) to visit our members.At the moment I am the Founder and President and my wife Angie is the Events Co-ordinator and we do all this for free in our own time. We hope it is worth it and you all enjoy being members?
We have considered having some other people doing roles like merchandise officer but no volunteers yet. If you fancy getting more involved please let us know.We also have some original Carver caps for a sale price of £8.50 / €10 + packaging and postage -
Please contact us if you would like one or two.
We brought these back from one of our trips to New Zealand as one of the previous Carver owners over there was giving them out when people took a ride in their Carver.#Clara's previous colours and her latest colour
When I was looking to order our #CarverOne I quite liked the Sandstone Gold colour from the colour card, but at the test drive there was a blue Carver and a red Carver and I quite liked the red so that's what we ordered.
The actual colour when #Clara was delivered was a little different to both the colour card and the sample panel.
After a few years the paint started to dull so we had a couple of professional polishes before we decided to have a temporary colour change.So now for the new colour (are you ready if you have not already seen her)?
So whilst #Clara was having some work done at Carvers-in-Elsass we asked Freddi to re-spray her in Aston Martin Lime Essence (the colour of their racing stripe) and paint all the sliver to match the graphite wheels.We have also had the paint protected with PPF (Paint Protection Film) and a ceramic coating. The team at RS Customs need Leeds did a great job and also made a video about it.
Check out the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDY19lHMtF4&t=2s and subscribe if you like it.Social Media #CarverOne
When posting anything on social media / the Internet can you try to use the hashtag #CarverOne as this will allow others that have Carvers or people that are interested in them to find media / information more easily.CVR-OC Links
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#Clara / #J8CVR / #VIN034 doing #DreamRides for @SportingBears raise money for UK children's charities at #CarFest (North) 2021.
I now have a full set of matching clothes with Clara - lol
#CarFest is an event that was created 10 years ago by Chris Evans (English television presenter, radio DJ, businessman, voice actor and producer for radio and television)
CarFest is the biggest family fundraising festival in the UK combining Cars (and other Vehicles) with Music (Rag'n'Bone Man, Judge Jules, Marc Almond, etc……..), food, drink, stars, cooking shows and lots moreWe took part in the Sat & Sun parades around the camp sitesWhilst on the parade we had to let Chris Evans over take usWe had been planning to go for a few years and finally booked for 2020 but due to Covid-19 it was cancelled and our money and camping was carried over until 2021. Since we were going in #Clara (#VIN034, #J8CVR) our #CarverOne we did not have a lot of luggage space and booked a pre-erected tent with air bed and sleeping bags.When I booked #CarFest and checked what was happening there I notices #SportingBears were giving @DreamRides. Quite a few years ago one of the owners club members (Jane W) mentioned about giving rides in her Carver to raise money for UK children's charities. So I got in touch with them and signed up to the #SportingBears along with giving @DreamRides (10 miles on the open roads) at #CarFest (North)A limited number (10) of the SportingBears signed up to give two laps of the track and then then 10 miles on the open road, but as I signed up late I was not aware of that option, BUT……….. I spoke with a track marshall who had said it would be great to see the Carver going around the track and suggested that tI spoke with race control, I then spoke with Max the SportingBear main person at the event and he said there was no harming in trying. I had to speak with various people, complete a few forms but eventually we got the all clear to take Clara and a luck winner of a bid for the passenger seat on the track and then the road, it was brilliant.Sporting Bears Just Giving page
The loss of events has hit our charities hard as many of our usual fund raising opportunities are based around these. However we want to do all we can to raise the money they would normally have had from the Club. So to this end we have started a crowdfunding JustGiving portal.
Please help us out by donating today!
Please CLICK and donate no matter how small or large a donationBelow is a little bit of video from the eventGreat event and I would like to thank- Chris Evans for coming up with the idea
- The Barbour family for allowing it at Bolesworth Castle
- Brand Events for bring it all together
- SportingBears for letting me join them to to DreamRides and making us feel welcome
- MSV Racing for last minute help getting on the track
- all of the other staff and volunteers
- The weather for being nice after 2019 was a MudFest
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Carver Owners Club - Newsletter 2021 (January)
Well I don't think any Carver Owners were out much in their Carvers in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.At least one of our UAE members got one of their Carvers to a 'cars in the park' event in Dubai (see photo below).#Clara the #CarverOne #VIN034 #J8CVR
This is an old photo of me and #Clara (our #CarverOne) from a good number of years ago when we took her to Le Mans.
Not sure who took the photo and why my_world_of_wheels posted it just a week ago on Instagram. Where has the photo been all this time?So this got me thinking and so I have decided to write a bit about why I bought a Carver.
If anyone else would like to share any stories about their Carver(s) please email me and I will look to add to future newsletters.I think the first time I saw a Carver (it was one out of 24 of the original hand built van den Brink Carvers) was on some UK TV programme back in 2003 and it was when Mole Valley Specialist Cars were going to be the UK sellers with a price tag of £24,000.00.
Photos below
• Left: Carver tilting three wheeled vehicle Konnie Huq on #BluePeter
• Right: Tim H outside UK National Motor MuseumIn 2003-4 I saw the Carver again on various TV programmes.
It might have been - Jeremy Clarkson 2003 Shoot Out video - "Jeremy Clarkson "this is the most fun you can have in a car (VX220), this is the most fun you can have (Carver One)" or it might have been the programme on the discovery channel or Future Car or Beyond Tomorrow.
And of course BBC Top Gear Series 2 Episode 9 first show 13 July 2003 -
• "I have never had so much fun in a car" - Jeremy Clarkson
• "He is my partner and also my lover" - Richard Hammond
So I started to keep an eye out for them.Eventually the UK Dealers for Carver (Bill Nathan and Paul Roxan) were set up and offered test drive days with two van den Brink Carvers (VDB21 (Blue) & VDB22 (Red))
In June 2006 me and Angie drove to Grove Hotel in Watford for a test drive (I had already put a deposit down on getting one anyway. I had originally thought about getting the Sandstorm gold colour but after the test drive I decided to go for the Corel Red instead.
I loved the test drive as it felt so natural to tilt in corners, but as I have never been a motorcycle rider I was not sure how the front wheel managed to have so much grip.
I had set myself a maximum budget to spend so I did not opt for leather or radio or a few of the other options, but I did go for the optional (and expensive) soft top, EUC upgrade (that was never developed / delivered) and the rear spoiler (which was nearly £600 back in 2006).After a couple of delays (some issues at the factory and our wedding) I finally picked up Clara (she is called Clara as when we first got her we did not have a garage to store her in so I used a friend's garage on Clara Drive hence the name) in early July from Watford and loved driving her back. I even got the thumbs up from someone driving a Noble car.
The photo below is of Clara - J8 CVR (JB (Jonathan Bedford) CarVeR) shortly after we got her and next to her is my daughter Hannah (then aged 5, she is now nearly 20) and my grandad (who lived to be 100 + 10 days).In June 2016 we took Clara to the Isle of Man TT after she had had a temporary colour change (did not last as long as they said it would). We loved the blue / purple colour flip.
We have had some great trips in Clara - Le Mans a couple of times, events in Wales, a couple of trips to Northern Spain and one trip to the Black Forest to name a few.
She still puts a smile on ours and other people's faces every time we go out in her.
PS - She has had a colour re-spray, keep an eye on social media over the next few months for her new colour.The owners register and help finding the last few owners
Does anyone recognise this Carver?
Is this your Carver?
It was posted on Instagram a few months ago by lb_design_zuidlandWe now have a few more Carvers and owners in the club, 158 Carvers and 126 owners, as there are some that love Carvers so much that they have more than one.
• We have one of the two 1999 Carvers - the ones with the mirrors that look like bug eyes = 50%
• We have 11 of the 24/25 hand build van den Brink Carvers in the club = c.45%
• We have 145 out of the possible c.200 Carver Ones = c.72%
• And one out of one 400 bhp Hayabusa Carver
And some unfortunately have been lost, crashed or damaged beyond repair.
We are still awaiting some VINs from members so if you have not let us know your VIN please contact us.Kerv Automotive
Below are some previously unseen Kerv photos of BS2 that Kerv have allowed the Carver Owners Club to share with its members.Sorry removed from Website as for Carver Owners OnlyKerv Automotive have been updating their social media so check out the links below the photos (the frame of BS1 and the beginning of the BS3 sample Electric Vehicle (EV) version).
There was a Carver Owners Club exclusive webinar back on the 12th November which some owners attended and others requested access to the link and documents (as they were not able to attend).
Kerv has asked the Carver Owners Club to get a view on who would be interested to do a meet and greet with Kerv in Belgium once Covid restrictions are lifted.
Can you please email the club if you are interested?
Hopefully I can share some more updates in the next couple of months.Kerv Automotive links.
• Website
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
And if you are interested in investing in Kerv see www.kervautomotive.com/en/invest/ or email [email protected].Events
Not sure what, if any, events will happen in 2021.
We are still planning to attend C4R-FEST (Camp Car Fest) North (sold out) in Clara as it has been setup as a social distancing event. Thanks @achrisevans & @Carfestevent
But we will just have to wait and see if we can go anywhere else in our Carvers this year.Buying / Selling
The Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) keeps a list of potential Carver buyers and tries to match them up with any sellers.
• If you are planning to sell your Carver for any reason please get in touch (https://www.cvr-oc.info/Contact-Information/)
• if you or someone you know is looking to buy a Carver, please get in touch and we can add details to the register and send mail updates of what is for sale.
There are buyers' and sellers' templates (along with required photos) on the Carver Owners Club downloads page. -
Carver Owners Club - Newsletter 2020 (July)Firstly we hope you are all safe and well in these strange times?
I think 2020 can be just about written off with regards to any Carver'ing events in the Northern hemisphere, hopefully by spring 2021 we will be able to do some serious Carver'ing and Covid-19 will be gone.We are hopefully going to take Clara our Carver to Freddi at Carver in Elsass (C-i-E) in September for some winter servicing and TLC (Tender Loving Care) as now she is 14 years old some bits need replacing.
We will probably be travelling through Belgium, Luxembourg and France so will try to meet other owners en route and maybe have a couple of days in the Black Forest before flying back to the UK.
We will keep you informed of our plans in case you want to join us / meet up.New Member
The club has it's first owner from Qatar, from the information the club has there were approx. nine Carvers sold to Qatar.
The new owner is not aware of any others in Qatar, maybe they are not used and are just in collections which is a shame as Carvers are meant to be driven.Are you able to help?
The first image is from a research student in the USA who has been given a grant to develop a vehicle and the second image is from Kerv Automotive. Both have been in touch with the owners club to ask if we can help. They both would like to know from Carver Owners what are the positives and negatives of the Carver. If you have any thoughts please let me know and I will pass them on.Help Wes
From the USA student "Hi Carver Owners Club, my name is Wesley Connor and I'm a graduate student going for my PhD degree in mechanical engineering at University of Delaware in the US. I've been interested in engineering aspects of vehicles for some time and have decided to build a prototype of a leaning vehicle using some grant funds I've received from the science foundation here in the states. My question is, what is the next generation leaning vehicle, the next iteration of Carver? What concepts might you already have in your head about what you would change about the Carver?Kerv Automotive
Last year on the way back from the Carver event in the Black Forest we called in to see Kerv Automotive to get an update on how their product was coming along.
We agreed with them that we would not mention anything to anyone until they were ready.
Now they are ready to start announcing their progress and show some videos, photos etc.
https://www.kervautomotive.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kervautomotive
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2650071971759442
https://www.instagram.com/kervautomotive/
https://twitter.com/KervAuto
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kerv-automotive/
If you would like to know more please contact us.Buying / Selling
If you are planning to sell your Carver for any reason please get in touch as we have a few potential buyers on the register now (https://www.cvr-oc.info/Carver-Selling-Buying/).
There are buyers' and sellers' templates (along with required photos) on the Carver Owners Club downloads page.The owners register and help finding the missing Carvers
We are still trying to track down missing Carvers, one less now we have the new member from Qatar.
We still have not managed to find either of the ones in the images below although the black one does seem to appear in YouTube videos and some of the comments are in Turkish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug4Up3N1_ow and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvfsejKNB7k)
We also still have a few members who have not yet provided their Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs).
Can you please send them in?
See https://www.cvr-oc.info/How-to-Join-the-club/ on how to locate your VIN.Carver History
We have updated the history timeline with regards to https://www.carver.earth/ the new Electric Vehicle (EV) from the inventors of the van den Brink Carver & Carver One. Plus Kerv Automotive
There are some interesting videos about the history of the Carver and the new Carver.Earth.
Genesis of Carver - Chris van den Brink tells the story - The history, snowboarding and Carver name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS_9AP215dk
Carver Company Presentation - Anton Rosier (or Rossier) CEO of Carver BV - The challenge, the solution and some history (starting 30 years ago).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1dRPviDkgs
A test drive of a Carver.Earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aklH7F2ekGMCarver One - Tiger edition spotted
Check out the Tiger edition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7xhFMN9G6Y -
New Decade 2020 Newsletter
The start of another Carver’ing Decade
The concept of Carver’ing started back in the 1990’s (Carver history can be found here) so the 2020's will be the fourth decade and hopefully will continue for another four decades.
Up in some parts of the Northern hemisphere the weather is not the best for Carver’ing but it is just about the right sort of weather in the United Arab Emirates, and of course in the Southern hemisphere, it is summer so time for some great Carver’ing.The differences between CVR-OC and CCPS (and CiE)
There are two “Clubs” dedicated to Carver owners worldwide – both of which are based in the UK.
The two clubs are focused on different aspects of Carver ownership.Carver Owners Club - CVR-OC
CVR-OC is the membership, club events and general news club for all Carver owners. Owners of every variant of Carver, based anywhere in the world, can join the club and membership is free.
The Club Founder and President is Jonathan and the Events Coordinator is Angie.
The Club also keeps a register of Carver owners and a register of who is looking to buy or sell a Carver (see more later in the newsletter).Club Carver Parts and Service - CCPS
CCPS is a separate club concept,- It deals specifically with the supply of parts and servicing for Carver One vehicles.
- CCPS is not a business, but instead is privately run on a “not for profit” basis. Income from sales of parts is invested in re-stocking new and replacement parts - and to fund extensive research and development for upgrades and enhancements.
- CCPS has been set up by a Carver owner, for Carver owners, to ensure continued supply of parts and servicing for Carver One vehicles worldwide.
- With years of Carver ownership experience, CCPS also provide informal technical assistance to help owners and service agent Carver in Elsass (CiE) with any maintenance issues or technical problems with their vehicles.
Nigel, together with the assistance of some very experienced engineers, heads up CCPS.Carver in Elsass (CiE)
Is a Service Agent of CCPS and is based near Strasbourg.
Click here to contact CiE
CiE is owned and run by the multilingual Freddi, together with the assistance of some experienced mechanics.Summary
So if you have any questions about parts (including those sold on an exchange basis), servicing, transportation, quotes, technical help please contact CCPS.
If you have any questions about joining in the Owners Club, Owners Club events, getting in touch with other Carver owners, buying or selling a Carver, etc please contact CVR-OC.Supporting CCPS
As mentioned above CCPS is a not for profit club and therefore needs all the support Carver owners can give, so please ensure you buy all parts through CCPS.Safety Notices / Upgrades
Back on the 1st of November 2018 (or more recently if you are a newer member) you should have received an email with the Subject of “CCPS Critical Safety Checks”.
“To this end we have produced a "Critical Safety Checks" document, a pdf copy of which can be accessed here. We would strongly advise that all owners take the time to carefully study the document and then send us the photographs requested as soon as possible.”
There have been very few owners who have sent in the requested photos, some of these might be due to the fact that you have had your Carver serviced at CCPS or Carver in Elsass, but if not can you please take a look at the safety notice and send in the requested photos?Clutch Slave Cylinder Modification
CCPS have discovered several design issues with the original Carver One clutch slave cylinder. Basically, the cylinder and piston can separate, making the clutch inoperable. Having spent many hours analysing the issues and prototyping various solutions, CCPS have now come up with a definitive design. CCPS now offer an updated version of the slave cylinder on an exchange basis. We recommend all Carver One owners exchange their clutch slave cylinders at the earliest opportunity.Events
We have added some events that Carver owners might be interested in attending, along with any Carver Owners Club organised events, to the links below.
https://www.cvr-oc.info/Carver-Events-Calender/
https://www.cvr-oc.info/Carver-Events-Calender/Carver-Events/We are working with a software developer to have the events laid out in a year planner format with an easy way to add to your own calendars. We will keep you posted as the development progresses.The main one for your diaries for now is the return to the Black Forest. After last year's great event we are planning to hold another one between Friday 29th May 2020 - Monday 1st June 2020.Myself and Angie have already bought tickets to C4R-FEST North in the UK if any other owners fancy joining us?We are also looking to plan another UK Lakes, Borders and Scotland trip, sorry no dates as yet but we will keep you posted.Buying / Selling
As mentioned above the Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) keeps a list of potential Carver buyers and tries to match them up with any sellers.
So if you are planning to sell your Carver for any reason please get in touch and if you or someone you know is looking to buy a Carver, get in touch and we can add details to the register.
There are buyers' and sellers' templates (along with required photos) on the Carver Owners Club downloads page.The owners register and help finding the last few owners
We now have 150 Carvers (both van den Brink and Carver One) in the club with Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) and owner details, and about another 15 for which we don’t have full details.
From the information we have there were 24 hand-built van den Brink Carvers. We have full details for 11 of these and another two that we are still awaiting VINs for, so that is over 50%.
On the Carver One front, we are doing much better. Out of the 197 built we have details for 139, so over 70% in the club.We do know that four were sold to Syria that are not yet in the owners' register, but there are still some missing around the Middle East and in Europe.
The black one below with the full red interior (which one of our owners will appreciate as he likes black vehicles with red interiors), to my understanding was in the UK with a Qatar registration of 428 Q09.
And then there is the Red carver with red engine covers, white wheels and a Ferrari badge in Spain (sorry about poor quality image), not to be confused with the Red engine covered one in Germany that had silver wheels. There is also a black one in Russia with Ferrari F430 wing mirrors which is also not in the club yet.
And if anyone is ever near St Eustatius (Official Body of the Netherlands in the Caribbean) there was one for sale a while ago but I never managed to track down the owner.And some unfortunately have been lost, crashed or damaged beyond repair.Club Chapters
Last year I set up a Whatsapp group for Carver owners around the counties of Yorkshire in the UK. This is so that we can all arrange to meet up when we are free for some Carver'ing fun.
Karl, a new Carver owner in Belgium, has also started a BeNeLux group so if you live in Belgium, Netherlands or Luxembourg and you are not already in touch with Karl, please let me know and I will make introductions.I do have a rough google map of where Carvers and their owners are in the world so if you want to start a local chapter of the Carver Owners Club please let me know and I will try to help.
If you have not already provided your rough location and would like to meet other Carver owners, please let me know your rough location (nearest city / large town).CCPS Downloads
As we have mentioned before in newsletters there are some very handy downloads from CCPS and we suggest you download them and keep them handy.
• Carver One DVC Diagnostics
• Carver One Fuses
• Carver One Technical Specifications
• How to check the DVC fluid level
• Securing a Carver One for transportation
• Securing a Carver One that has lost hydraulic pressure"The Carver One has a few idiosyncrasies (well it tilts for a start) which are definitely worth remembering if you drive or own a Carver."
"This is certainly essential reading if you are lucky enough to be a Carver One Newbie."
Carver One Glitches & Gotchas.Links
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Carver Owners Club - Summer 2019 - Newsletter
Events
Black Forest 2019
We had an excellent time - 12 Carvers attended across the weekend and we visited another owner on the way to the event. Both the French and German roads were excellent (thanks Freddi (F) and Wolfgang (DE)), combinations of long sweeping bends and technical tight corners. The food and drink were also excellent, but I ate and drank too much. The event was really made though by the attendees from UK, France, Luxemburg, Germany and India who, despite not all speaking a common language, seemed to be able to communicate. Thanks all for attending.I am working on the video from the event.
There are a couple of tasters on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6RLDlRc9vc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV3xzYpV7ck
and the photos from the event can be found on social media in the links sectionQuote “Dear Jonathan and Angie,
I write this on my flight home, after my trip.
Excuse me if this sounds like an Oscar award winner’s speech.
I want to express heartfelt thanks to you both, Freddi, Wolfgang and all other members of the club who worked hard to make Black Forest 2019 a success.
You make it look easy year after year. I am sure it’s anything but that. The routes for both days were perfect for “Carvering”.
11 Carvers, tilting in and out of curves along those sinuous roads in formation is a sight to behold, like no other.
Kudos to COC for the great organisation, a special shout out to Nigel (Team CCPS) and Freddi (Carver in Elsass) for the great work they are doing of bringing so many Carvers to safe and reliable working condition.
Thanks to Freddi and Wolfgang for leading, patiently waiting junction after junction to make sure no one was lost.
And before signing off, cheers to all the participants. Everyone drove sensibly, and came home safely
All in all, delighted and fortunate to have attended and met a lovely bunch of Carver pilots.
No doubt whatsoever, I can’t wait for the next meet.
Cheers,Future Events
Please let us know if you have any ideas for future events. Italy has already been mentioned for 2020 but also suggestions to go back to Spain or the Black Forest again and Norway has also been mentioned. Also, it would be great if other members can help organise to give me and Angie a break.It’s a tough life but….
Founder and self-elected Club President, along with the events coordinator, visited members around the world.We went on a holiday to New Zealand and whilst we were there, we visited past and present club members.
We visited Peter and Karen who were the dealers / importers of the Carvers into New Zealand back in 2007, they only imported two carvers initially for themselves. They kindly let us park our hired motor home on their tennis court and we had a fabulous evening with them before moving on to visit Malcolm and Sammy.
Mal is now in his 80s and loves his Carver; he uses it most weekends in the summer. He was very kind and lent it to me and Angie so we took it for an eight hour drive covering 600 km When we got back they took us to their son’s house for a BBQ which was very lovely. We visited the other Carver which is now in the
entrance of the Southward Motor Museum. It used to belong to Dave who we visited in south Island where he sold us 80 original Carver caps.On the way back from New Zealand we stopped off in Dubai / UAE and arranged to meet some of the members there. We met them in a shopping area, Ahmed turned up first and then Ali shortly after. We went for some cakes and coffee whilst we waited for Mubarak to arrive. These owners have been in touch with each other via WhatsApp but had never met in person! It took me, the President, to travel around the world to get them to meet face to face. After the cakes and coffee, we went for a meal and Ali let Angie choose. She picked Chinese. We thought it was a bit odd having deserts first but then at least you are not too full of savoury food to eat the sweet food. One of the members kindly took some time out of their very busy work schedule to show us some of the sights of Dubai including a trip into the desert which was a great experience.If you have any interesting Carver stories that you would like to share with other members, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
CVR-OC Membership update
Membership of the club continues to grow slowly. We are now up to 152 Carver Ones in the Club out of the original c.200 that were built.
We found four in one day as part of our Black Forest travels and were made aware of one that was destroyed.
In addition, we have 11 of the original 24 hand-built Van den Brink Carvers. A fantastic achievement for the ClubThe club’s website
Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) www.cvr-oc.info
Please ensure that you visit the Club’s website as there is useful member information on it
I am working on a better way to show the events and will send a mail out once I have that working.CVR-OC Links
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Carver Owners Club - December 2018 - Newsletter
Carver Owners Club
Events
Events from 2018
Spain May 2018Yet another excellent event in Spain. The roads were fantastic, the weather was very kind to us and we all sampled some delicious Spanish food. All participants had a great time and it was good to meet some new Carver owners too.Wales July 2018So, this year’s Welsh event was held at a new venue for the Club, in the beautiful countryside of mid-Wales. This gave us an excellent opportunity to drive some alternative, brilliant Welsh roads. Although the Carver ambulance had to be called for a radiator problem on one of our Dutch owners’ Carvers – this was fixed at the event and he got home without any further hitches.Borders Sept 2018We arranged a last-minute event around the English Lakes, Northumberland and the England / Scotland border. The event was enjoyed by all and we stayed in some lovely hotels. However, the president of the Owner’s Club discovered a problem with his clutch, which eventually led to the CCPS upgrade as mentioned later in this newsletter.Events Planned for 2019
May 2019 - Black ForestWe are considering having an event near the French / German border, around the Strasbourg area and the Black Forest. We are hoping to organise this in collaboration with Freddi from Carver-in-Elsass, who has in-depth knowledge of the best roads for this event. If you are interested in attending, please contact the events co-ordinator (Angie) as soon as possible to register your interest.July 2019 - WalesWe are very likely to be having another Welsh event back at the usual venue in the Snowdonia area of North Wales. This is normally held on the first weekend in July, so if you wish to attend make sure you put a note in your diary for the 5th – 7th July 2019.CVR-OC Membership update
We are now up to 141 Carvers in the Club, out of the original 200 that were built. In addition, we have 11 of the original 24 hand-built Van den Brink Carvers. A fantastic achievement for the Club!Latest News from Club Carver Parts and Service (CCPS)
Clutch Slave Cylinder Modification
CCPS have discovered several design issues with the original Carver One clutch slave cylinder. Basically, the cylinder and piston can separate, making the clutch inoperable. Having spent many hours analysing the issues and prototyping various solutions, CCPS have now come up with a definitive design. CCPS now offer an updated version of the slave cylinder on an exchange basis. We recommend all Carver One owners exchange their clutch slave cylinders at the earliest opportunity.CarverOne Club Germany
In 2011 a number of Carver owners formed a Club and decided to buy a stock of Carver One parts, to be held in Germany. As time passed, one by one the founding members left the Club and/or sold their Carvers. Earlier this year the remaining spares were offered for sale to the Club and CCPS have now bought these to add to the existing Carver One spares. The trusty Carver transit van was despatched to Strasbourg and the spares are now safely stored at our warehouse in Wales.CCPS Website Updates
CCPS have recently updated their website with some new information which is useful to know - here's a summary of the updates:Our preferred performance front tyre, the Dunlop Sportmax D208, has now been discontinued. After a series of road tests under various conditions, CCPS has some new recommendations for a replacement. To avoid the disappointment of buying an unsuitable front tyre, it's definitely worth considering their advice - see 'Tech Tips' on the CCPS website.If you've ever had the need to transport your Carver (for servicing, or after a breakdown) you will know that securing it to the transporter can be tricky. Most 3rd party transport companies struggle to find suitable locations for their standard ratchet straps, which can often result in some damage to the Carver. CCPS has therefore published a guide for securing a Carver for transport, including in the unfortunate circumstances where the Carver will no longer stay upright - see 'Carver Transportation' on the CCPS website.We still see Carvers coming in for service with far too much DVC fluid in the tank, which causes flooding when the oil gets hot and can also block the air breather filter in the DVC tank. By following the clear set of instructions prepared by CCPS, the DVC fluid can be checked and adjusted to ensure the correct level is always maintained - see 'Tech Tips' on the CCPS website.Useful CCPS Documents to download
We have several useful documents that you may wish to download and keep on your smart phone. You can take a look at these on the CCPS website by clicking hereLinks
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CCPS Website updates – December 2017Hi all Carver Owners
We are pleased to announce some updates to the Technical Tips and/or Downloads pages on the Club Carver Parts & Service (CCPS) website.
The Carver One has a few idiosyncrasies (well it tilts for a start) which are definitely worth remembering when you drive a Carver. It’s likely most owners will already be aware of some, but maybe not all. CCPS have now compiled a document of these “Glitches & Gotchas” with a brief explanation for each – and this is now available to download from the website.
Checking the DVC fluid level is something all owners should know how to do. But it’s not quite as easy as first appears and CCPS see many Carvers arrive in their workshops with incorrect DVC fluid levels. CCPS have now written a (hopefully) foolproof procedure for getting this right and we would encourage all owners to download the document for future reference.
Both documents are on the Technical Tips and Download pages on the website – click either link below to view/download them. And if you are a Carver One Newbie, make sure you take a look soon!
Regards, JB.
Link to Technical Tips …. http://www.ccps.org.uk/Technical-Tips/
Link to Downloads ….. http://www.ccps.org.uk/Downloads-Information/ -
Attention all Carver One owners.On the 25th October 2017, the Club issued an email to all Carver One owners regarding a required safety check for the Carver One. If you are an owner and you have not received the email, please contact the Club at your earliest convenience. The Club can be contacted by email or Facebook message me (Jonathan Bedford) and please include your VIN number.
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Improved Parts and Service supply for Carver Club MembersA new facility for Carver One servicing and repairs has been set up in the UK, based in North Wales. The engineers have plenty of experience in working on Carvers and have developed several upgrades for the car to improve reliability and handling. Services also include full camber and tracking setup and front wheel alignment, main valve refurbishment & rebuilds, and 50-point service checks. This facility does not operate as a separate business, but instead has been privately established by Carver enthusiasts, who's primary aim is to help existing owners keep their cars flying the road.
A new facility for Carver One servicing and repairs has been set up in the UK, based in North Wales. The engineers have plenty of experience in working on Carvers and have developed several upgrades for the car to improve reliability and handling. Services also include full camber and tracking setup and front wheel alignment, main valve refurbishment & rebuilds, and 50-point service checks. This facility does not operate as a separate business, but instead has been privately established by Carver enthusiasts, who's primary aim is to help existing owners keep their cars flying the road.
In providing these services it became necessary to stock a range of Carver parts in the UK, so that owners' cars could be promptly serviced and repaired. Arrangements were made with 2Drive and ACU in Germany and a selection of Carver parts have already been shipped to the UK. These are now available for Carver owners ex-stock, with further stocks to follow over the coming months.
This new arrangement for parts supply will be called the "Club Carver" scheme and is available to all members of the UK Carver Club. To qualify you must be a UK Carver Club Member and have supplied your VIN No, Address, Telephone Number(s) and Email address to the Club, together with a photograph of your Carver. There is currently no membership fee for the UK Club.
As a Carver owner and member of the UK Club, Simon has volunteered as Club Carver Parts Coordinator, to be the principal contact for supply of Carver parts, liaising with the Welsh service facility and the parts warehouses in Germany and in the UK. The aim is to build an efficient parts supply service for all Carver owners, with Simon coordinating the various activities required to ensure parts are supplied as swiftly as possible.
As we all know, the Carver One does require specialist knowledge in many areas of its operation and maintenance. The Club has close links with the technicians in Wales and can forward any queries to the relevant engineers and experts, ensuring the correct part is identified and then supplied. Any owners needing repairs and servicing should also contact Simon or myself, as we can log their request with the Wales service facility who will then respond directly with the owner.
Please note that the Club Carver scheme runs complimentary to the existing UK Owners Club and the services already provided by Harry Studemann at 2Drive.
The UK Club is keen to improve the facilities available for all Carver owners and we are sure that these new arrangements will help with owners' requirements for parts, servicing or both - so please get in touch with us in the first instance. I (Jonathan Bedford) can be messaged via Facebook.
For any further information regarding this announcement, please feel free to email see Contact Info or message me via Facebook.
Jonathan Bedford Club President - Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) -
Clarification on Carver Parts supply and Servicing. / Klärung der Carver Parts Versorgung und Wartung.Genuine OE (Original Equipment) Carver One parts are no longer available through service agents.
Carver One parts are only available from CCPS and sold directly to Carver One Owners who are members of the Owners Club.
Carver One Owners can get comprehensive Servicing at either CCPS which is located in the UK - North Wales, or Carver in Elsass which is located in France - near Strasbourg. Both CCPS and Carver in Elsass offer full advice on any parts required for your Carver One.
Any questions, then please feel free to message me.Echtes OE (Original Equipment) Carver One Teil ist nicht mehr über Service-Agenten erhältlich.
Carver One Parts ist nur bei CCPS erhältlich und wird direkt an Carver One Owners verkauft, die Mitglieder des Owners Club sind.
Carver One Owners können sich umfassend anrufen, entweder bei CCPS, der sich in der UK - North Wales, oder Carver in Elsass Welches ist in France - in der Nähe von Strasbourg. Beide CCPS beide Carver in ElsassBieten Sie eine komplette Beratung für alle Teile für Ihre Carver One erforderlich.
Irgendwelche Fragen, dann fühlen Sie bitte sich frei, Nachricht mir zu geben. -
Carver Club Insurance Scheme (sorry UK owners only)To - UK Owners
Thanks to Nigel at CCPS - through his contacts we have been able to set up a competitive Club Insurance scheme
We have been working with Nigel’s contact Dave Spragg at MSM Insurance and we are now proud to announce the Club Scheme on the MSM Insurance website
To access go to www.msminsurance.co.uk - hover over “PERSONAL” to see large menu, and Carver One is listed on far left – click there.
Or go straight to the Carver One Insurance
MSM Insurance can also be contacted on
Tel: 01279 870535
Fax: 01279 870636 -
Carver 10 Year event, small but perfectPhoto - Carvers in PortsmouthSo it looked like the event was going to be a disaster, as not many owners were going to attend, the weather looked really bad and the 24hr sea crossing was forecast to be rough to very rough.
But we set off from three UK areas (Malton, Bradford & Pwllheli) with six people in five Carvers and met up just outside Portsmouth.
Photo - French and UK CarversWhen the UK contingent, along with Adrie from the Netherlands (whose Carver had been at CCPS for a service), arrived at the Hotel Miramar in San Vicente de la Barquera we met up with Freddi and his wife Janine from France bringing the people count up to eight in six Carvers.The hotel was a little dated but very nice and we all had sea views from our balconies.
We had a very nice dinner in the hotel but ordering took a little time due to the translation of menus and the numerous languages spoken by the Carver Owners Club membersLate Wednesday Sean from Ireland turned up but unfortunately without his Carver as he is having a fight with the insurance companies about insuring it. So several flights and a hire car later he arrived.
Well done Sean, what a commitment to the Carver cause.
Total now nine people, six Carvers and a hire car.Nikhil from India turned up bearing Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) merchandise - pens and coasters with the club logo on (which he had liberated from the Internet but I did not mind). His travelling partner who was driving the hire car grabbed some sleep as he was tired from the trip. So now we had 11 people, six carvers and two hire cars.The Spanish contingent Tino and his brother Miguel had already let me know that they would not be turning up until Thursday eveningbut when they did this made a total of 13 people, seven Carvers and two hire cars.The Spanish Carver arrived in Style in a space age trailer.Photo - Nice blue Spanish Carver
Photo - Space age trailer for the Spanish Carver
As the weather on the Thursday morning was still a little wet and the mountains were covered in cloud, I decided to change the routes around and do route 2 on day 1 and route 1 on day 2. This also meant that the Spanish owners could do the best route when they arrived.The RoutesPhoto - Day 1 lunch stopHighlights from day 1:-
Sean kidnapped Freddi's wife in Nikhil's hire car whilst he was getting a ride in the back of Freddi's Carver
The €10 two course set lunch was huge and great value for money
The unbelievable roads esp. up to the dam.Photo - Twisty roads around the dam
Photo - A little colder up herePhoto - What views
Highlights from day 2:-
The lovely roads, views, corners
Everything was just fantastic.Photo - Some of the technical corners for Carver'ing
Later in the afternoon there was a mutiny lead by his Lordship as he wanted to see a lake and did not like the road surface up to the main Picos de Europa. He was followed by Monty and Freddi but Adrie stuck with us and soon the rough road became some of the smoothest road I have driven on with fantastic corners. We enjoyed ourselves so much that our DVC oil started to boil with the heat and the high altitude, so we stopped to admire the view.Photo - Rough road changing to smoothPhoto - Smoothest road with road sign Carvers love
Photo - The Picos de Europa
Photo - Locals interested in CarversWe met back up with the rebel group for a coffee where the locals were very interested in the Carvers. One lucky local (attractive girl) even got a ride in a Carver. The locals even invited us to their BBQ the following day but we could not go as we had to go back to our home countries.On Day 3 we packed up and left the hotel around lunch time and did a revised route 3 so we could take a look at the lake the rebel group had driven to. However we got held up by four cyclists with a police escort, so by the time we had lunch at 15:30 we needed to get our feet down to make the 24hr ferry back to the UK.Photo - My interesting lunch of snakes (sea snake / eels), chips, fried eggs and garlicWhat a great event that only had a few minor challengesClara (J8CVR) was leaking some fluid from the front and it did not smell like DVC so the best guess from the CCPS hotline was it could be the master clutch cylinder that was leaking. Should we go home or go on? Even with the poor weather and crossing forecast we thought we should go on since we had spent so much time and effort planning the event.Nikhil from India had bought a Carver in Germany (with an unknown service history) and picked it up on route to Spain, but in Belgium he had problems with the pulley and belt and had to leave it in a small town and continue by hire car to Spain. What a valiant effort Nikhil, thanks for attending and the gifts.The Spanish Carver had a flat battery. Eventually we jump started it but the battery was completely dead and needed replacing. After a few hours standing in the sun eating ice creams a battery was located but…….
Being Spain they have a long lunch so we left the Spanish owners with Sean and his hire car and continued the route whilst they had a nice lunch and awaited for the shop to open.Photo - Miguel blaming Tino for killing the battery
Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come along, hope you all enjoyed it?
I know some did as they want to make it an annual or bi-annual event.
And a massive thanks to Angie (the wife) for sorting hotels, ferries etc and to CCPS for ensuring that Carvers were ready for the trip. -
Carver Owners Club membership hits the target (100 Carvers)
This is a big milestone in the Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) history
The Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) membership continues to grow. I have continued trawling (google'ing, bing'ing, Facebook'ing, Linkedin'ing, emailing, etc) the Internet when time allows to find any mention of Carvers and then digging around to find contact information, but it now seems more and more owners are finding us.
For quite a while the CVR-OC members totalled around 20 members owning about 25 carvers between them and were mainly in the UK and Ireland. Then we started to find more owners around the world and at the beginning of 2017 we numbered about 55 Carvers shared across 47 owners. My ambition for the club is still to find all the Carvers in the world (circa 200).
Now the latest membership figures are 100 Carvers (some of which are van den Brink Carvers and now……) from around the world, from UK through Europe to the middle east, and now India and all the way to New Zealand.
So my previous news statement "Hopefully next year I can report that we have 50% (approx. 12 van den Brink & 100 Carver Ones) of the Carvers in the club" has happened
If you are a Carver owner, or know of a Carver owner, it would be great to hear from you. And if you are an owner you can join the Carver Owners Club anytime - registration is easy and it's totally free!
The Carver Owners Club could not have done this without the help and support of Club Carver Parts and Service (CCPS) www.ccps.org.uk.
CCPS have a reliable source of spares and services, run by fellow Carver owners and all backed up with excellent technical knowledge gained from years of experience maintaining their own cars.
CCPS is run as a club and not for profit so I ask all owners to help support it to ensure we can keep our Carvers flying the road.
Now I need to finish sorting things for the 10th anniversary year of Carver Ones, with the trip to Spain in May 2017 for a get together.And as Monty Python would say "and now for something completely different (well not quite)
The 100th Carver to join the Carver Owners Club is one of the prototypes from 1999 -
2Drive Germany business closed down and TVS suspended trading for the time being
Please see below news from CCPS with regards to the closure of 2Drive's business and TVS suspending trading for the time being.
If you know of any other Carver owners in your country who need to know about this and who have not yet joined the Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) can you please forward this email to them.
We would like to encourage all Carver owners to join the Owners Club (http://www.cvr-oc.info/How-to-Join-the-club/) so that they can take advantage of the Parts & Services now available from CCPS.
At the moment the Club is in contact with the owners of 80 Carvers worldwide - it would be great to get in touch with the remaining 120 in the near future!Important news regarding Parts & Servicing for Carver One owners...
2Drive business closed down
As many of you know, back in 2009 when the original Carver company ceased to trade, 2Drive entered into prolonged negotiations with ACU and the receivers to ensure that supply of parts to existing owners could be continued. As part of that arrangement 2Drive established workshops at Uberherrn, to provide comprehensive maintenance and repair facilities. A licensing deal was also agreed with Carver Technology for the DVC system, enabling new Carvers too be built into the foreseeable future. The revised Carver business was incorporated into 2Drive and additional offices were established in Uberherrn, together with an expanded labour force for the workshops.
2Drive's Carver business was very successful for maintenance and repair work, but during 2015 it became apparent to both 2Drive and ACU that the new build business (based on hand-built rather than factory assembled cars) was not really commercially viable in the long term. At the same time, ACU made a surprise announcement that they were selling the building which 2Drive rented on their site - this meant that the service workshops also had to be re-located at very short notice.
2Drive decided that the best option going forward was to find suitable investment partners (and preferably Carver owners too) who would take on the responsibility for supply of parts and servicing going forward. In the autumn of 2015, 2Drive agreed an arrangement with a UK investor (an existing owner of three Carvers) who was prepared to buy the parts and to setup a full maintenance and repair facility in the UK. This has now come to fruition in the setup of CCPS - Club Carver Parts & Service, who are committed to providing a first class service to all Carver owners worldwide.
2016 was a very busy year for 2Drive, establishing these arrangements on behalf of all Carver owners and ensuring continued supply of parts. 2Drive’s vision was always to build new cars, but given the costs involved, there was simply not enough demand to make this a realistic business proposition. Harry Stuedemann therefore decided to close the 2Drive business and this took place at the end of January 2017, in the full knowledge that 2Drive's Carver customers would continue to be well served by CCPS.
Whilst CCPS are now fully established in the UK, we recognise that a central European service facility would be beneficial to many owners, eliminating the need to transport vehicles to the UK for standard servicing work. As a result of 2Drive’s closure and with the news that TVS (Tilting Vehicle Support) have suspended trading for the time being, CCPS are now considering a number of alternatives for European servicing, with a view to making an announcement on this in the very near future.
For all your Carver One needs in the meantime, please contact CCPS directly - we will always be happy to help.
CCPS – February 2017
Website: www.ccps.org.uk -
Carver Owners Club membership quadruples in six monthsThe Carver Owners Club (CVR-OC) membership is growing. Over the winter months in the UK I have been trawling (google'ing, bing'ing, Facebook'ing, Linkedin'ing, emailing, etc) the Internet to find any mention of Carvers and then digging around to find contact information
For quite a while the CVR-OC members totalled around 20 members owning about 25 carvers between them and were mainly in the UK and Ireland, but my ambition for the club is to find all the Carvers in the world ;-)
And I will go to some lengths to find these owners. In fact, I went around the world to find a couple of them back in October 2016 (From United Kingdom to New Zealand and back again)
Now the latest membership figures are 55 Carvers (three of which are van den Brink Carvers) across 47 members from around the world, but we are also now aware of five other owners and about 15 other Carvers.
Hopefully next year I can report that we have 50% (approx. 12 van den Brink & 100 Carver Ones) of the Carvers in the club
If you are a Carver owner, it would be great to hear from you. And you can join the Carver Owners Club anytime - registration is easy and it's totally free!
Of course, what has really helped the renewed interest / revival of Carvers is the news about Club Carver Parts and Service (CCPS) www.ccps.org.uk.
We now have a reliable source of spares and services, run by fellow Carver owners and all backed up with excellent technical knowledge gained from years of experience maintaining their own cars.
CCPS is run as a club and not for profit so I ask all owners to help support it to ensure we can keep our Carvers flying the road.
Also don’t forget this is the 10th anniversary year of Carvers and we are planning our trip to Spain in May 2017 for a get together. If you are a Carver owner and you wish to attend this event please get in touch. -
Important Announcement from Club Carver regarding supply of Carver spare partsWe wish to bring to the attention of all Carver owners and service providers that the total stocks of Carver parts held in Uberherrn, Germany have now been purchased from ACU, and have been transported to a new storage facility in the UK. ACU were expecting far greater volumes of new car orders, which sadly never materialised and it therefore became uneconomic for them to continue to hold the parts. To avoid any risk that the parts would be scrapped, lengthy negotiations to secure the parts were conducted and eventually a purchase contract was agreed with ACU in Spring of this year. The specialist Carver service and test equipment was also purchased as part of the deal.
Once the UK storage unit was built, transportation began in earnest during the summer and the last truck from Uberherrn was unloaded at the end of October. The task of sorting and cataloguing the spares is now well underway and we hope to have most of this work completed by Christmas, to be fully operational by the end of January 2017.
As some of you know, Club Carver already offer a full servicing facility in Wales and now all the parts are directly on hand, we can provide every Carver owner with supply of parts and servicing for maintenance and repairs in a timely and efficient manner. Throughout this process we have discovered some low stock levels for certain essential parts and we have already started a re-stocking programme - our aim is to eventually provide a 48-hour turnaround time from order to dispatch for all parts. Of course In the short term, there may be some delays in parts being shipped due to the un-packing, sorting and cataloguing involved.... so bear with us please!
The move to the UK is good news for all, because the parts are now managed by enthusiastic Carver owners, whose only mission is to allow all our cars to 'fly
the road' for many years to come. Because Club Carver Parts & Service (CCPS) only operate on a 'club' basis, please ensure you firstly register your car with Jonathan Bedford at the CVR-OC (Carver Owners Club). Membership of CVR-OC is free and available to all Carver owners worldwide.
With a vast range of parts available now, don't hesitate to contact Club Carver with your requirements for parts or servicing or both. See the Contact Info page for our new email address
For CVR-OC membership please contact Jonathan Bedford, CVR-OC President see the Contact Info page or you can message him via Facebook on the Carver One Fan Club group.
Further bulletins will be forthcoming soon, including the launch of a new dedicated website for CCPS, a sellers and buyers register and the possibility of some special pricing offers on certain stock items next year.
Fly The Road forever....